"The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" panel of the 20-panel polyptych by Hubert and Jan Van Eyck known as "The Ghent Altarpiece." Image courtesy "Closer to Van Eyck: Rediscovering the Ghent Altarpiece."

As reported in the New York Times, Hubert and Jan Van Eyck’s masterpiece and icon of Western art, The Mystic Lamb, generally known as the Ghent Altarpiece, is now the subject of a new highly detailed, interactive Web site Closer to Van Eyck: Rediscovering the Ghent Altarpiece. Users can now examine the most minute details, such as the passage below from the Virgin Enthroned panel of this polyptych. There’s also extensive reporting about restoration, dendochronological analysis along with infrared reflectography and x-radiography. Most of all, it’s an opportunity to leisurely and exhaustively examine and revel in a truly breathtaking work of art. And if/when you find yourself at the painting’s home in the Villa Chapel in St. Bavo Cathedral in Ghent, you’ll be all the more prepared.

Detail of the "Virgin Enthroned" panel from Hubert and Jan Van Eyck's polyptych known as "The Ghent Altarpiece." Image courtesy "Closer to Van Eyck: Rediscovering the Ghent Altarpiece."